teppo-2 Painkiller Jane is a show that is plagued with... well, mediocrity. It's not a bad show, but there's really nothing that stands out either - unless you want to count Kristanna Loken's cleavage, which gets ample presentation, to the point where it's an obvious attempt to keep people interested via sex appeal. Obviously Loken is pleasing to the eye in general, but they should've paid as much attention to the rest of the series as they did on capitalizing on her good looks.So, as said, nothing really stands out as "great". First off, the neuros. Call 'em what you will, but a potato is still a potato, and these guys are just like the ones you see in, say, Heroes or X-Men. Basically identical powers, genes to blame, and so on. Obviously not overly original - though I suppose this stems from the comic this show is based on, but I've never read the comic so I don't know how faithful the show is to it.Then there's the main characters - the usual "freak-hunter" squad. Sadly, the team personalities are pretty much as uninspired as the neuros are. There's the sexy tough chick (well, two for the first half of the series). Then there's the kind of egoistic and annoying "ohmygod I'm so smart and soooo gooood at what I do" techie geek that you see in just about every damn series, or so it feels at least. Don't forget the "muscle" of the group either, a brawny guy whose function is pretty much just the combat side of things. And of course he has to throw sexist comments around all the time, just like you'd expect. The roster is rounded out by the usual reclusive, not-great-with-people doctor and the ex-special forces team leader.Aside from the uninspired character templates there's the acting. Well, it's also on the mediocre region. It rarely makes you cringe, but just as rarely shines. This is true for all cast members.The writing continues the standard-fare trend, with not many gems to be found. There are several rather weak episodes, many more so than really good ones. It feels they forgot the main premise altogether for a majority of the season, only returning to it at the last four or so episodes. That's generally not a good thing, as they could've kept things much more interesting by giving us more than just separated incidents with random neuros.The bottom line: Not bad, but not exactly good. It really does summarize the series as a whole. It's something to keep you occupied in the lack of something better. At least for my part, I didn't feel I wasted time watching it. It was sufficiently enjoyable to prevent that feeling. But certainly it could've been better if the makers had put some extra effort into it.Despite not being so great, I wouldn't have minded seeing a second season. Perhaps they would've focused more on the real bad guys instead of just the "symptom". But it's not surprising that show got stopped, so this is all we'll get.

Dominik Schlatter It took me about 5 episodes to realize what was wrong with painkiller jane: nothing matters, nobody cares. every episode is just 40 minutes of watching a beautiful but somewhat dull kristanna loken solve a case involving -of course- some kind of a neuro. and the action isn't all that great either. what makes it bad is that there is almost no character building. there is no emotional depth. none of the team members matter to us. even jane won't really reveal much of herself, so why should we care? as an example: in one episode janes partner gets shot. there is of course a funeral (because there has to be) but one episode later its like she never even existed. nobody seemed to miss her, nobody mentiones her. thats just how shallow painkiller jane is. and its too bad, because there are some good episodes that show us how P.J. could have been.

mike-4445 I believe this show is worth a watch. May not be quite what you are used to but I like the show and think you should give it a try. Give it a try without being biased before. Don't think to much into it and just try to enjoy it.I see that people complain about the "rules" and how there are none. Blah blah blah... I completely disagree with some of the other comments. First off, the story line is about a woman named Jane Vasko, our Painkiller Jane, who delves into a secret government organization and ends up working for them. This organization tracks down genetically mutated humans and "chips them", which stops their powers. These humans are referred to as Neuros. The kicker is that Jane discovers that she has the power to rapidly heal and seems indestructible. She has some similarities to a Neuro but differences at the same time(hints at a possible gov't experiment).Now this is some of the stuff I disagree with: "Neuro is basically a catch-all that allows the show to do anything it wants...Led by this complete lack of focus with the Neuros, the show slips and slides all over the road...possibly because it has no personality of it's own."I believe that having no limits on what these Neuros can do does not limit the shows personality at all. I believe that instead gives room for the writers to be creative. With restrictions on the Neuros, or what one person was calling "rules", the powers available for the show to use are limited. Plus its not like they have Neuros who can control you from around the world, making it impossible to track down, they have to be within proximity. And they do keep the powers creative, I mean stealing someones age, I believe thats pretty creative. Now you might say thats too out of the ordinary, but remember before you judge it that way, that its a show about people "who can do dangerous things with their minds", its not meant to be something you expect to see.Now I do agree there are some flaws, for instance the writers seem to try to play Loken as one of "the guys." I think thats a huge mistake, Loken is a gorgeous woman and I think the show should use it.My rating: 7/10Give it a try without thinking too much about "rules" and other crap like that. Just enjoy the show, you might find you like it.

bbsy The show is based off a comic. The show started off in a less than stellar manner with the shaky camera work and revealing all the twists before hand. The voice-over was also excessive in the first episode. These problems were fixed by the second episode. The voice-overs were still slightly excessive but by this week's episode, the third episode, it is fitting. They have it in the beginning and end. I don't know about others. But to me it gives it more of a comic book vibe. There also seems to be some attempt to adding a moral or concept in the beginning and having the episode based around that. I'm not big on moral tales, but this show pulls it off nicely. The show is increasing tremendously every week, with the story lines and character development in each episode, which is another way it relates to comics. I think the actors are getting more comfortable in their roles. This show given time could be a major success.